One mission, two countries – Bosnia and Herzegovina and South Africa collecting waste

This weekend, the activists of Bosnia and Herzegovina and South Africa are going to make an effort in order to have a waste free planet. Both cleanup teams hope to gather tens of thousands of volunteers with the mission to sweep the country in one day. Similar one-day cleanups have been taking place all over the world for the past years.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is having its first cleanup on the 9th of September. The team has set some ambitious goals for the day: to gather 100 000 volunteers and clean about 20 000 tons of illegal waste, to raise awareness about pollution and preserving the environment, to create first and updated illegal waste dump registry of Bosnia and Herzegovina and to create a functional network between government and NGO sector. But that is still not all – the PR coordinator, Adis Nović says that “Other than raising awareness and creating our network between sectors we have another goal we've set that has nothing to do with ecology,” adding “Our, let's call it "secret agenda", is to gather at least 100 000 volunteers with just one thing on their mind – environment and preserving it, no matter what race or religion they are.” So the organizers are looking to unite the whole society for common good, through the action.

While Bosnia and Herzegovina is having its first massive cleanup, South Africa has organized many different cleanups before – the first International Coastal Cleanup in South Africa was organized already in 1996. Cleanup 2012 called "CLEANUP AND RECYCLE SA – berg2beach" is held on the 10th of September and is aiming to gather tens of thousands of participants.

In September the cleanup actions will take place in Belarus, Russia, Armenia, Philippines, Malaysia, Argentina, Netherlands, Germany, Nigeria, France, El Salvador, Belgium, Mauritius, Albania, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Romania and Italy. World Cleanup 2012 action calendar can be found here: www.letsdoitworld.org/cleanup_dates.

World Cleanup 2012 is supported by Skype, Outfit7, Estonian Air and Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group.